The Slashfood reviewer said they actually taste pretty good, but that is some NASTY looking shit, my friends. Personally, I don’t like my breakfast foods to resemble disembodied goat testicles, no matter HOW much maple flavor they have.

And while we’re on the subject of nasty, behold the Thanksgiving Turkey Cake, made from turkey, stuffing, and sweet potatoes with a “frosting” of mashed potatoes and topped with marshmallows:

Does this remind anybody else of that episode of “Friends” where Rachel makes trifle using a recipe for shepherd’s pie? And do NOT even talk to me about “The Cherpumple”.

Shifting gears a bit, Slashfood has a post today with the attention-grabbing fear-inducing headline “Are Raw-Milk Cheeses Safe?” Well, duh. Of course they are. People have been eating raw milk cheeses for CENTURIES. And, thankfully, the writer does eventually get around to acknowledging that. The problem isn’t the raw milk, the problem is unsafe production. Half-assed regulation on the part of the FDA, along with cost-cutting bean-counting is the problem, not the cheese. In fact, the post even points out that pasteurized cheeses are more likely to have Listeria growing in them than the raw versions of the same products. Just say NO to industrial cheese!

Factoid: every human being accounts for approximately two tons of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere annually based on their daily consumption of food. That total represents every aspect of not just consumption but also the production and transportation of food. The Spanish researchers who conducted that study say that the amount of CO₂ involved in the food chain represents 20% of the annual per capita carbon dioxide tally per person in Spain.

Dueling lists: Six Biggest Food Myths vs Top Five Groceries You Buy And Then Throw Out

Crunchy frog, it’s not just candy anymore!

(source)

The infographic above explains why the volcanic ash cloud spewing from Iceland might not be such a bad thing: grounding 2/3 of the air traffic in Europe also eliminates 2/3 of the daily amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere from those jet engines, which is an enormous amount. Added up over the last few days, we’re already talking about well over a million tons already, with at least a couple more days of cancellations to go. Philosopher and writer Alain de Botton imagines a post-airline world in this thoughtful BBC essay.

An old friend from high school who lives in Stavanger, Norway posted this picture on Facebook showing the ash depositing on her patio. It reminds me of how we got some of the ash from Mount Saint Helens after the big 1980 eruption all the way in Maine. I don’t recall the same sort of issue with air travel back then, but maybe it’s because it was just a single big explosion instead of an ongoing eruption, so the cloud dissipated faster.

As usual, Alan Taylor at The Big Picture has rounded up the best of the newswire photos of the volcano so far. I particularly like this one because the molten lava peeking out from underneath its crust is so malevolent-looking:

And here’s an amusing little video of various BBC presenters and reporters trying to pronounce the name of the volcano, Eyjafjallajökull:

You have to give the Beeb credit for even trying. The local newsmonkeys have all opted to say “the volcano in Iceland”.